Public-Private Collaboration Launches “KIDS of VALR” — the Virginia Life Registry — to Protect Children with Special Health Needs by Sharing Critical Insights During an Emergency
Deployment of the R.U.S.H. Initiative for Children in Virginia — sponsored in part by Amazon Web Services (AWS, AWS Startups, Amazon) through its Health Equity Initiative — puts critical health details about young people’s serious and/or complex medical conditions into the hands of emergency responders, even before they arrive on-scene. In the words of EMS Chief Steve Powell: “Who wouldn’t want to help these kids?”
Rockingham, Virginia and Danville, CA (14 NOVEMBER 2023): In a unique demonstration of collaboration across professional lines for the benefit of children with special health needs, their families, and the clinicians who care for them, the Central Shenandoah EMS (CSEMS) Region of Virginia today and its range of partners is pleased to announce the deployment of KIDS OF VALR, a local program of the R.U.S.H. Initiative for Children.
— VALR stands for “Virginia Life Registry”
— “R.U.S.H. stands for “Rare & Under-Served Health.”
The program, which is sponsored in part by Amazon Web Services’ Health Equity Initiative, brings together a range of clinical partners and tech-enabled services to share information in real-time, when a young person is in healthcare distress. The organizations that have partnered with CSEMS on this effort include the Rockingham County Department of Fire & Rescue, the Virginia Department of Health’s Office of Family Health Services, Rockingham County Public Schools, several hospitals, plus Thorne Ambulance Service, Beyond Lucid Technologies ( Beyond Lucid Tech, an award-winning innovations firm) and Unite Us (a statewide social determinants referral company).
KIDS OF VALR is deploying first in Rockingham County, and is available to communities across the Commonwealth of Virginia, leveraging both the statewide Unite Us referral system, and a software system provided by Beyond Lucid Technologies that gives Fire, Emergency Medical Services, and Community Paramedicine programs access to data that have been provided by the patient, an authorized family or guardian, or a clinician or social worker who is assisting the family with submitting information about their child. CSEMS has designed the deployment with health equity in mind, including the publication of authorization documents in fourteen (14) languages so parents or guardians feel comfortable sharing critical health details with emergency responders, enabling them to arrive at the scene maximally informed, and even to send an alert to the patient’s primary care physician or a school nurse, ensuring that the “loop closes” and all stakeholders in the child’s care are aware that an emergency encounter was needed and the registry accessed.
— Steve Powell, EMS Chief of Rockingham County Fire Department, said: “Emergency Services continually looks for ways to better serve their communities. The fire service has long been advocates of the pre-plan concept, which in a nutshell gives us an overview of what we are walking into with specific types of incidents before we physically arrive on the scene. When we discussed the idea of pre-planning for children with special needs or our underserved communities, I knew we had to be a part of this journey. Watching this program develop from a single idea to a multi-agency partnership has been incredible and the Rockingham County Department of Fire & Rescue is proud to be a part of this adventure. This program has the potential to change the lives of these children, their caregivers, and the providers tasked with answering their call for assistance.”
— According to Ashley Houff, Rockingham County Public Schools Supervisor of Pupil Personnel Services: “Rockingham County Public Schools is honored to partner with local EMS staff to advertise and support our families with children having special medical needs. This collaboration allows our families access to the registry whereby responders are knowledgeable and privy of information specific to the precise needs of our youth to provide the best care possible.”
— Jonathon Feit, Co-Founder & Chief Executive of Beyond Lucid Technologies, added: “They say ‘it takes a village.’ We’re honored to provide the ‘data pipes’ through which critical details about some very deserving but kids can flow to those who want nothing more than to take care of them when seconds count. The R.U.S.H. Initiative for Children, including KIDS OF VALR, is the most emotional work we’ve ever done. This collaboration proves how much is achievable when we pull in the same direction, mission-driven and focused on who matter.”
Learn about the R.U.S.H. Initiative for Children at http://www.beyondlucid.com/kids, and the KIDS OF VALR program on the Central Shenandoah EMS Region’s website: http://csems.org/rush.
About BEYOND LUCID TECHNOLOGIES, INC. and the R.U.S.H. INITIATIVE FOR CHILDREN
Beyond Lucid Technologies develops software to inform Mobile Medical Professionals about patients’ needs even before they arrive on-scene, then empower them to share insights across the care continuum in real-time. Our Communication Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) software is patented, and packed with innovations that make Fire, EMS, Non-Emergency / Inter-Facility Medical Transport (IFT), Critical Care (Ground & Air), and Community Paramedicine / Mobile Integrated Health (CP/MIH) safer, more efficient and more cost-effective. Critical focal areas include addressing substance use disorders and ensuring that context like patients’ end-of-life wishes are available to emergency responders while at the patient’s side. BLT’s “prehospital pipes” connect the dots for partner-clients across the U.S., and in Australia and Puerto Rico, with 300+ hospitals on our MEDIVIEW BEACON Prehospital Health Information Exchange network.
We have been called “Silicon Valley’s Emergency Medical Technology Experts,” and deployed America’s first statewide registry of children with special health needs across Oregon. Winner of the 2019 Frost & Sullivan Technology Leadership Award for EMS Communications Platform, and awards from EMS World and the Journal of EMS. Our Co-Founder & Chief Executive was a 2020 UCSF Digital Health Hall of Fame nominee, and in 2022, he received a Civilian EMS Award from the California EMS Authority. Join BLT in realizing the vision of Mobile Medical interoperability: BeyondLucid.com and RUSHforChildren.org
CONTACT:
Daniel Linkins, Director
Central Shenandoah EMS Region
(540) 569–4202
Daniel.Linkins@vdh.virginia.gov
Jonathon Feit, Co-Founder & CEO
Beyond Lucid Technologies, Inc.
(650) 648–3727
Jonathon.Feit@beyondlucid.com
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